diff --git a/src/util/timer.cpp b/src/util/timer.cpp
deleted file mode 100644
index 2d80b732c..000000000
--- a/src/util/timer.cpp
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
-/*++
-Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation
-
-Module Name:
-
-    timer.cpp
-
-Abstract:
-
-    <abstract>
-
-Author:
-
-    Leonardo de Moura (leonardo) 2009-01-06.
-
-Revision History:
-
---*/
-#include "util/util.h"
-#include "util/memory_manager.h"
-#include "util/stopwatch.h"
-#include "util/timer.h"
-
-timer::timer(){
-    m_watch = alloc(stopwatch);
-    start();
-}
- 
-timer::~timer() {
-    dealloc(m_watch);
-}
-
-void timer::start() {
-    m_watch->start();
-}
-
-double timer::get_seconds() {
-    return m_watch->get_current_seconds();
-}
-
diff --git a/src/util/timer.h b/src/util/timer.h
index b4a69f8bf..37566e613 100644
--- a/src/util/timer.h
+++ b/src/util/timer.h
@@ -19,21 +19,29 @@ Revision History:
 #ifndef TIMER_H_
 #define TIMER_H_
 
-class stopwatch;
+#include "util/stopwatch.h"
 
 /**
-   \brief Wrapper for the stopwatch class. It hides windows.h dependency.
+   \brief Wrapper for the stopwatch class.
 */
 class timer {
-    stopwatch * m_watch;
+    stopwatch m_watch;
 public:
-    timer();
-    ~timer();
-    void start();
-    double get_seconds();
-    bool timeout(unsigned secs) { return secs > 0 && secs != UINT_MAX && get_seconds() > secs; }
-    bool ms_timeout(unsigned ms) { return ms > 0 && ms != UINT_MAX && get_seconds() * 1000 > ms; }
+    void start() {
+        m_watch.start();
+    }
+
+    double get_seconds() const {
+        return m_watch.get_current_seconds();
+    }
+
+    bool timeout(unsigned secs) const {
+        return secs != 0 && secs != UINT_MAX && get_seconds() > secs;
+    }
+
+    bool ms_timeout(unsigned ms) const {
+        return ms != 0 && ms != UINT_MAX && get_seconds() * 1000 > ms;
+    }
 };
 
 #endif /* TIMER_H_ */
-